Garden club seeking funds after COVID shuts down clubhouse rental

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 10, 2021

The COVID pandemic hasn’t kept flowers from blooming and leaves turning at Pioneer Memorial Park.

But health restrictions have shut down any possibility of renting out the park clubhouse — the Sequim Prairie Garden Club’s sole source of revenue.

Since the pandemic shut down all community gatherings and voided any chance of clubhouse rental revenue, SPGC has paid costs of maintaining the park — taxes, insurance, electricity, mowing, edging, leaf removal, sprinkler repairs, etc. — out of savings set aside for emergencies and long-term park improvements.

The club also incurs some expenses as it provides each year scholarships for graduating high school seniors.

“We are kind of in a hold pattern,” club treasurer Joan Whiting said during an interview with KSQM last week.

The club has plant sales each year, Whiting noted; when the COVID pandemic hit last year club members shifted those to drive-thru sales that raised some money, “but not anything compared to a full blown plant sale.”

Garden club members baked and sold pies each year, Whiting noted. “Those too were canceled last year.”

The club, which boats 53 active volunteers and no paid personnel, has set up a Go Fund Me account, available at the club website at sequimprairiegardenclub.org and charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/park-campaign-20211. Members are seeking $35,000 both to make up for the revenue shortfall and restore an emergency fund depleted in the past 12 months, until clubhouse rentals and fundraisers can be held.

“The funds will be used to pay for our operating expenses,” Whiting said.

SPGC is recognized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation providing civic, charitable and educational services; donations are tax-deductible.

Mail checks to: Sequim Prairie Garden Club, PO Box 46, Sequim, WA 98382.

Park particulars

The property now known as Pioneer Memorial Park was once part of pioneer John Bell’s estate, Whiting said, before his estate sold the four acres of land to Clallam County for the development of cemetery.

Unfortunately, she noted, the land was unsuitable for the use as it flooded easily, and in the early 1900s the cemetery became inactive as locals established a cemetery north of town. Most of the interred had been moved off the property by 1919, when Sequim View Cemetery was established.

In the early 1940s when descendants of pioneers and the Sequim Prairie Garden Club — originally a group of 18 civic-minded women, Whiting noted — began to clear the weeds, blackberry vines and debris accumulated in the abandoned cemetery. In 1951 the club signed a $1-a-year, 99-year lease with the Sequim Cemetery Association, later transferred to the City of Sequim in 2002.

In 1960, the community relocated a millhouse from Carlsborg to the park as a clubhouse, and in 1965 a meeting room with a fireplace was added that served as the city’s first gathering place.

At some point in the 1960s, the club deeded the property to the city, with SPGC primarily responsible for the park’s upkeep.

So, for the past seven decades, park club members have maintained the 4-acre park that has become a popular place to picnic, walk and take pets. The clubhouse is also a popular draw for those looking to host parties, weddings, group meetings and other gatherings. Each year the Sequim-Dungeness Chamber of Commerce hosts a picnic for its membership.

Prior to the pandemic, club members had completed some long-overdue interior clubhouse improvements — new paint, wallpaper, flooring and bathroom fixtures — to give the facility a whole new look.

“SPGC is looking forward to opening up the clubhouse again for all of the events that make Pioneer Memorial Park a favorite venue,” club members said in a press release.

Garden club members meet the first Monday of the month, and tend to the park from 9:30 a.m-noon on Mondays and Thursdays — planting, weeding, pruning, raking and renovating garden beds. SPGC is also seeking community assistance in park upkeep.

For more about the fundraiser, the park or Sequim Prairie Garden Club in general, call 360-808-3434.